Maybe he was trying to make a jumpseat?

In all seriousness...I don't give a sh!t what his reason was. He has the authority to declare an emergency for whatever he wants. That's why he gets paid the big bucks. Although, he also has to fill out the paperwork for declaring said emergency. And, if he's out to lunch...He'll be doing a tap dance in front of our friends at the FAA.

Having said all that...It's not the controller's responsibility to determine how much of an emergency, the A/C is in. If the capt. declared an emergency, they both should do whatever it takes to get the aircraft safely on the ground.

Tell ya what fellahs, he got it on the ground. Give the guy a break! He said he suspected a fuel leak so let's take him at his word. You guys sit here and ask what happened to captain's authority. He did what he had to do and got it on the ground in one piece. GREAT JOB guys if you are reading this.

Oh yeah, a buddy mine had his first engine fire in three decades of flying. A fuel line had rubbed through and was spraying high pressure fuel on the burner cans. He got it on the ground no problem, but whose to say these AA guys didn't have a hose rub through as well? It might have been fine the first portion, but on the way down, a high g load in a certain configuration could have been ALL it took to pinch and rupture a line. Give the guy a break.

Tom

You've got my vote!

Cargo Bob,
I guess we can add you to that club .

bill

Is that you, honey?

Ohh, sorry. I thought you were my wife there, for a minute.

say what MikeCargoBob?
 

you wrote on 2-14
"My truck produces more greenhouse gases than Dicaprio's hybrid, but his Gulfsteam flights across the country/Atlantic chasing p_ssy destroy the environment at a rate that would make even Al blush."

you need to read your own posts dude...lol

deleted...

We can't second guess the PIC or his FO on their decision making process. I'm sure they were keeping track of their rate of fuel burn and loss of fuel at every check point as well as in contact with their Mx control. I am sure that with his experience and if the low fuel situation became an emergency he would have set down in Alliance, Love, or Fort Worth. The crew did an OK job... at then end of the day, nobody went to the hospital. Let's give the captain and yes his FO some credit.

I think if they were trying to hide some thing, like a mis-load of fuel, wrong calculations etc, they would have advised of a min fuel situation. I don't think they would have came out and declared an emergency, and stated that they were low on fuel and had no idea why. Sounds pretty up and up to me. Oh yeah, none of us where there.

There's something not quite right about this story, but then again, it's discussed on an internet forum.

According to the link, he did declare a "low fuel emergency." But then again it is the mass media. 8)